diff --git a/lib/jekyll/core_ext.rb b/lib/jekyll/core_ext.rb
index 1d6b83a1..b1192cf4 100644
--- a/lib/jekyll/core_ext.rb
+++ b/lib/jekyll/core_ext.rb
@@ -58,3 +58,11 @@ module Enumerable
     any? { |exp| File.fnmatch?(exp, e) }
   end
 end
+
+if RUBY_VERSION < "1.9"
+  class String
+    def force_encoding(enc)
+      self
+    end
+  end
+end